The Other
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: Sometimes you hate yourself so much you wish you could be someone else.
1. The Other 1-1

The sound of crumpled steel banging against locker in Winslow High was what caught the attention of everyone nearby. Students and teachers flocked outside, only to see an imposing figure floating in front of a damaged locker.

A very recognizable figure indeed, as Alexandria was one of the foremost heroes in the world. Her black and gray bodysuit, mask and cape were very distinctive, after all.

"What the hell is she doing here?" a jock shouted out.

"What happened here? Why would someone put such filth inside someone's locker?" the hero demanded as her black boots tapped down on the rough carpet.

One teacher, more brave than her peers, came over. "Oh, my god. That's disgusting."

The used female hygiene pads and products laid out, scattered from the smashed opened locker.

"Someone was locked into this locker." There was a smeared hand print on the backside of the locker, along with strands of curly, dark hair. Alexandria suddenly looked at the crowd. "One of you call 911 and inform them that there is a Parahuman Incident here at the school," she called out, gesturing to include all of them in her orders. "This has become a crime scene."

"Wasn't that Hebert's locker?" one of the 'out crowd' girls asked.

"You. Have all of these classrooms evacuated and all of the children kept back. I'm taking personal charge of this crime scene until the PRT and the police arrive. Try to find out which class this Hebert girl was supposed to be in," Alexandria ordered.

"Yes, ma'am!"

* * *

Armsmaster skidded to a halt in the front of the high school ten minutes later. Velocity blurred up next to him.

"She's right there, big as life and just as imposing. What is she doing in Brockton Bay?"

"That is the million dollar questions. It's most likely nothing, but it could be that she followed a villain here." The heavily armored tinker walked inside, even as his HUD noted that the PRT response was about 10 % slower than it should be. Something he would have to mention to Director Piggot the next time they met.

It was his people's lives on the line if they were slow, after all.

"Armsmaster. Good to see you again," Alexandria said as she walked over. They quickly shook hands in a brisk, friendly manner of business acquaintances.

"What's the situation?" he asked as he walked over to the obvious disturbance. Idly, he wondered if it was a good thing that seeing dismembered bodies had desensitized him to the ugly mess.

"I found this scene. It appears that a parahuman situation occurred here, where a girl was shoved into her locker. She possibly burst out, but there is no evidence of her leaving the site," Alexandria explained as she walked over, trying to take care to not step on the evidence.

"Velocity, you are leaving tracks. Try to keep back." Armsmaster frowned as he considered things. She had not explained why she was here. "What brings you to Brockton Bay?"

Alexandria's mask covered everything about her face of importance, but just the posture and angle of your head could tell you a lot. Like the surprise she was emoting. "I- I can't remember."

The tinker nodded to himself even as he sent a message through the Protectorate message system. "I'm initiating Master-Stranger protocols. Considering the situation, it's possible that the victim triggered, took control of you to force you to come and rescue her. Which-"

"-would be incredibly bad. A villain with the power to control any parahuman from across the country would have to be dealt with as soon as possible."

"Exactly. If you'll come with me, we'll get you to the quarantine holding cells at our local base. Do you need a lift?" Armsmaster was wondering if she could actually fly. There was other possibilities. Always other possibilities.

"No, I'll just keep close," Alexandria said as she lifted off the ground.

"Velocity, I want you to head there with Alexandria. I'll catch up and we'll start to go down the checklist."

"You got it, Armsmaster."

They were accelerating the entire time on the run/flight over to the repurposed oil rig. They stopped on the small docking platform attached to one of the main four legs.

"You know, I'm not entirely sure why we have this base out here. You'd think that being safe in the water isn't being safer with Leviathan around," Velocity joked, one of his overused jokes that got a groaner out of almost everyone. He hit the button access the control panel, typing in his long password and putting his eye up to the scanner. Luckily it worked right through the peephole on his helmet.

"You know, you are exactly right about that," Alexandria replied in a serious tone. "We'll need to rig some chains so I can lift this out of the water and put it someplace inside the city or just outside. Probably closer to the north side of things, as that is where most of the problems are in Brockton Bay."

Velocity was blinking at that, as she took his joke far too seriously. "Well, we do have our forcefield-"

"Don't be silly. Artificial forcefields barely slow down Endbringers. This is a floating death trap."

"Um, right." Huh, and he thought he was just being morbid. "Follow me, please. Oh, there's Triumph and Assault. And, Assault, you can't shake her hand with that stupid shocker you got at the joke shop. Stranger-Master protocols," Velocity told his team mates.

Triumph nodded his lion-armored head. "Armsmaster has a good reason to worry if someone can take over you, Alexandria. We'll still be good hosts, of course."

"Ahhhh. I just wanted to see if she'd jump from the shock," the ex-villain said in a playful tone.

"Dude, you've been trying to get everyone with that damn thing. I have no idea what Battery sees in you. And you are making us look bad."

"Very well. Lead on, Velocity," Alexandria said graciously, glad that her mask covered her face to hide her smile.

* * *

Half an hour later, Armsmaster finished riding his motorcycle back to the Protectorate base. His motorcycle switched back to wheeled mode from its ski jet mode and to that same dock that the others had just used. The elevator stopped at the vehicle bay where he left his motorcycle in its tinker-repair bay. He needed to give it a tune up and fix that issue it had with balance at lower speeds in the water.

Whenever he had time for it. Perhaps next year.

He ran up the three flights of stairs to his lab/office, getting in five minutes of exercise to make up for all the time he'd lost going to Winslow High. He had remarkably small information to work with.

"Call Dockworkers Union, ask for Danny Herbert in Human Resources. Connect when he answers," Armsmaster told his computer.

Then he sat at his desk and verified that Alexandria was actually sitting calmly at the table in the quarantine room, with no one else still in there.

Beep. "-my name is Danny Hebert, you silly machine," an upset voice said from the video phone.

"My apologies, Mr. Hebert. I misstated your name. This is Armsmaster with the Brockton Bay Protectorates. There has been an incident at your school. Do you know where your daughter would go if she left school early?"

"Is Taylor hurt? What happened?" he replied, suddenly sounding quite worried.

"We do not know if she was injured or not. But we do want to talk to her about what happened to her locker. Once forensics is finished, we'll hopefully know a little more. Would she just go home? Or does she have any friends that she would go to?"

There was a long pause. "Not... recently. She used to have a best friend, Emma Barnes, but they haven't gone out in at least six months. If she's not at home, she's likely to go to the library. She's a good kid, Armsmaster. She knows to stay away from gangs and drugs."

The library? He'd have Dauntless swing by there after he finished checking the Herbert... Hebert home.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Hebert. I'll try to keep you informed if anything else has happened. Goodbye." Armsmaster frowned after disconnecting the call. The school should have called him by then. Well, not everyone was as efficient as he was.

A larger screen came out of the ceiling on a robotic arm. "Computer: Call Protectorate West. Priority Beta, highest ranking administrator."

A minute later, the masked face of Rime came on the line. "This is Rime. How can I help you, Armsmaster."

"I've had to put Alexandria into our containment facility due to the worry that she was controlled by a new master. She does not remember why she was at one of our local high schools, investigating a parahuman incident."

"Hmm. She's away on Triumvirate business. We should bring in our local lords and masters. Probably Chief Director Costa-Brown also."

"Good idea. Computer: Call Director Piggot."

The stocky visage of the leader of the Brockton Bay PRT came on in only moments, the screen splitting into four square. "Armsmaster, what's the issue?" She had learned to be direct and no-nonsense with him.

"First I would suggest that we bring in Chief Director Costa-Brown so I don't have to go over this again. This affects two separate cities," Armsmaster explained.

The pretty face of the Rebecca Costa-Brown came on the screen even as Director Tanner appeared.

"What is the situation, Armsmaster?" the chief director asked as she looked at him intently.

"Alexandria is currently quarantined due to Master-Stranger guidelines here in Brockton Bay after she could not explain why she was taking charge of a possible parahuman incident at our local school," he explained. "I'll be contacting Dragon and having her help figure out what sort of power was used. But currently it is not safe to leave her."

"Alexandria?" Costa-Brown asked curiously. "I was under the impression she was resistant to mental attacks."

"She's not here in L.A. right now. She said she would check in later, but that she would be out of contact for several hours today. So this is likely her," Rime said helpfully.

Armsmaster noted that the chief director looked annoyed for a second. "I figured this was important enough that I should inform everyone. But I need to try and solve this mystery as fast as possible."

"Keep us informed," Director Piggot said curtly.

"And keep a lid on this, Armsmaster. We can't have it publicly out that Alexandria was possibly controlled," the chief director said.

"She's supposed to be at a few functions this evening that she would not put off," the last director noted. "We'll have to come up with something important enough for her to not show up to that meeting in Washington D.C. in three hours with Senator Manning, but doesn't require her to be visible in public."

"Let's leave the Armsmaster and Rime to handle their ends while we discuss that on our own," Piggot said.

With that, Armsmaster was disconnected. He thought for a long moment as he thought back over the conversation. He would have to review his recording later to get a deeper insight. "Computer, call Dragon."

She appeared instantly, as always. Which, now that he thought about it, was a bit odd itself.

"Armsmaster? How can I help you?" the masked face on the screen asked with just a hint of warmth.

"I'm going to need you to monitor me while I go try to verify what happened to Alexandria. She showed up at Winslow High at a possible parahuman incident, but does not remember how she got there."

"Certainly. I don't have any higher priorities right now."

"I've opened a channel to my armor's cameras," he said as he stood up and started walking down the corridor.

"I'm in, Armsmaster," Dragon's voice said in his helmet directly.

It was only one level up and near the detention rooms. Assault was leaning against the wall.

"Do I have to stick around, oh boss of mine?" he asked in his flippant manner.

"No, you're free to go. I've got Dragon monitoring me," Armsmaster stated simply. He leaned down to let the retinal scanner work as he typed in his twenty-five digit password.

"Wahooo! Got a date night before patrol! I need to get some roses or I'm going to be sleeping on the couch!" Assault said, taking off at a run.

Armsmaster clamped down on his annoyance. It was just easier to ignore the ex-villain most of the time. He let the first door slide closed behind his blue and silver armored form. Then the inside door opened. Exiting would be annoying, but the five minute wait would not be lifted until the quarantine was canceled.

"Armsmaster. I should have asked for a newspaper or a book to read," Alexandria said as she stood up.

"I'm sure we can get you something if we can't get a resolution to this mess quickly," he promised. "Still no memories of why you were in Winslow High?" he asked.

"I'm accessing your lie detector and using my servers to handle extra processing power," Dragon stated simply through his helmet.

"I- No, nothing still. I'm feeling very confused."

Not an outright lie, but definitely not the truth either. Weird, Armsmaster thought to himself. Well, the first thing is try ordering her to do something she would never do on her own. "If you don't mind, Alexandria, would you unmask so I can confirm your identity?"

That seemed to surprise her. "Certainly. I should have thought of that myself."

Got her. No way would Alexandria unmask to him. So this was likely-

His whole thought process screeched to a halt as the very young looking face of Rebecca Costa-Brown was revealed from under the mask.

"Is there a problem, Armsmaster?" the now unmuffled voice of the chief director asked even as her face showed confusion.

"Armsmaster? That's an identical match to the Chief Director," Dragon said in surprise in his ears.

"Chief Director Costa-Brown?" he blurted out in surprise.

"You remembered! I'm glad of that-" Alexandria's face turned to confusion as she noted his confusion. "What's the problem?"

"You can't be the Chief Director. Who the hell are you?" Armsmaster demanded angrily. Damn it, he was going to have to be quarantined himself.

"No. I have to be. I don't want to be her again." Her face turned into an anguished, distressed visage. "Please, don't make me go back."

"Armsmaster! You need to calm her down!" Dragon said worriedly.

For his part, he was thinking very hard how to do that. "Miss, they can't hurt you any more. You're safe. They can't put you in that locker again."

She had been backing up to push against the metal wall of the containment room, her head shaking the entire time. "You promise?" she asked in a very small, innocent voice.

"I promise," he said simply.

The unmasked form of Alexandria melted or sublimated away, leaving the blood and filth caked form of a young fifteen year old girl, still wearing glasses who slid down the wall curl up into a ball, breathing fast and just barely not sobbing as a used tampon fell to the ground with a wet sound from the wall behind her.

"Taylor Hebert, I presume?" Armsmaster asked.

"Help her up. I think you might need to give her a hug," Dragon said in his ear.

"Right," he muttered to himself. He didn't like kids. That's why he mostly left the Wards to Miss Militia or the PRT. He awkwardly help her up and tried to pat her on the shoulder comfortingly. When she threw herself into a hug around him and started sobbing, he was totally at a loss.

And in perfect, bad timing, the airlock door opened up to admit a black and gray garbed figure. It closed immediately behind Alexandria per its programming.

"Armsmaster, are you alright? I see you've resolved the issue here then," Alexandria said as she stepped in, her cape swirling behind her. "I flew here as quickly as I could when I found out that there was a 'me' here."

A mental control in his helmet sent a quick text message for Dragon to record this. "Only partly. I first need to ask you to answer a question."

The masked head tilted ever so slightly. "Oh?"

"Are you Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown?" the tinker said directly. If she attacked, he was likely dead. He'd have to tell the girl to resume her copied form.

"That's ludicrous, Armsmaster. What's going on?" Alexandria stated after a short pause.

The HUD burned with the word LIE.

"Taylor, turn back into Alexandria right now. And you had better have a very good explanation about why a parahuman is in charge of the PRT, Alexandria," Armsmaster almost snarled out. "You are undermining everything it stands for." His halberd appeared in his hands, extending to full length with shinks and clicks.

"Armsmaster?" Taylor said in confusion, but followed his instructions, turning once again into a perfect copy of Alexandria.

She stood still for just a moment. "Yes, actually, I do. The most important reason in the world. To save humanity. So you have a lie detector in there now? I'll have to remember that in the future."

"Save... humanity?" the Taylor-Alexandria said in stunned confusion.

"Yes. All of it, across all Earths in all dimensions. It appears that we are going to be recruiting two more people today to stop him," Alexandria said unhappily.

"I'm not convinced yet," the armored warrior said.

"We can't talk about it here. Too insecure. This could be recorded or worse."

"It is recorded and set to be sent out to the rest of the world if I disappear," Armsmaster half-bluffed. "We will think about not releasing it if you start talking and actually convince us."

Alexandria seemed to be thinking hard, then pulled off her mask, showing her makeup smeared face. "I guess I have no choice. Before Scion appeared, the organization I am part of saved the world from a monster from another dimension and deep space. It's a parasitic organism. Due to happenstance, our two first members managed to kill it in a once in a lifetime chance. The problem is, that it's mate is still alive and we believe capable of destroying Earth and all humanity. And it is very likely that if we attempt to attack it that we will only make it worse. There is a 99.98 % chance that if we act too early or too late that humanity dies. All humanity, everywhere."

"We've dealt with large threats before, so I'm not seeing why you needed to infiltrate and take over the PRT." Armsmaster at least pointed his halberd away slightly.

"No, we haven't dealt with a threat on this scale. In fact, because we can not destroy the Endbringers, we know that we are severely under prepared to deal with the threat," she explained as she continued to talk.

"Worse than an Endbringer? That's... a serious accusation," the leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate said slowly.

Dragon was listening closely, all of her system mapping her biometrics and muscle movements. The real Alexandria had not said one lie yet, which was quite worrying.

"Considering that the threat is Scion, I can state for sure that we can not deal with him as a threat. He can deal with the Endbringers with impunity while we fight and die by the dozens. When Scion snaps out of his current state, he will destroy the Earth. While we can not predict his actions directly, every precog of sufficient power knows that in at most two hundred years or so the Earth is destroyed." She was being absolutely earnest now, trying to convince them.

Dragon spoke up, commandeering the external speaker on Armsmaster's armor. "She hasn't lied once since she tried to about her civilian identity. I think we had better listen very carefully, Armsmaster."

"Dragon. That makes sense. So actually three people," the unmasked Alexandria said unhappily. "Please, I have proof, but I have to take you there to it. It's in another dimension, so I have to have you drop the quarantine."

"Disable the quarantine on my authority, Dragon. Do we need to wait for Dragon to arrive in one of her armors, Alexandria?" Armsmaster asked.

"It would be best," the clandestine leader of the PRT said.

"I would only be able to go with you if you could leave a way to transmit a signal back to my base," Dragon said carefully. "Otherwise I can not go at all."

"That's being very paranoid. This can not get out to the general public-"

"I can not go without a signal back to my base. That is final."

"It will take a bit to set up. Is the teleport blocker on right now?" Alexandria said as she pulled on her mask.

At some mental commands, the protective barrier dropped. "It's down for now."

"Door," Alexandria called out. To the side of them, the metal wall of the quarantine room just disappeared to show a hallway. "I'll be back in half an hour." With that she walked through the dimensional portal.

"Can- Can I get a shower and some clean clothes?" Taylor asked as she let her Alexandria form dissipate.

"Yes, we can do that. Dragon, are you on your way?"

"ETA is twenty-five minutes with my fast reaction suit," she replied.

"I'll call your father and let him know that you are all right while you shower. Let me show you to the woman's locker room. Would you like a mask so that no one else sees your face?" Armsmaster asked carefully.

"Oh. That would probably be better, wouldn't it?" Taylor said, showing a little more vigor and life at the thought.

* * *

The commuter train clattered along as it left Brockton Bay, the gloom of the afternoon outside under the clouds making everything look washed out.

"Are you sure we needed to leave, Sophia?" Emma asked her friend.

"It was fucking Alexandria there, looking at the locker we stuffed your ex-friend Taylor in. So yeah, I'm fucking sure I don't want to go back to Juvie. And you might be unlucky enough to be there with me. Because she will fucking not take any shit and she will find out what the hell happened. And I doubt that the school will be able to stonewall her for a fucking second," the dark-skinned girl told her friend.

"But we don't even have any clothing and just the money on my allowance ATM card," the redhead said plaintively. And Sophia made her leave their phones behind in a locker at the train station with their batteries removed.

"Fucking cope. And we're emptying your account. We'll lay low for a week or so and then call your parents to find out what happened. If it's all blown over, you'll go home and get the lowdown. God this is such a fucking mess. What were we thinking?" Sophia was very unhappy right now.

"It's just gross and she was only going to be in there a few hours. They can't make too big of a deal of it, can they?" Emma asked.

"They can if they want to. Which since none of those pussies like me means they probably will try to throw the book at me." And Sophia had hated prison. She suddenly smiled at Emma. "Besides, we can prove we're strong enough on the streets there."


	2. The Other 1-2

The Other 1.2

Taylor felt much more human after the shower and getting dressed in a dark blue Protectorate t-shirt and sweat pants. She wore only socks, because she was not ever going to put on those shoes again. Someone had even left her a bio-hazard bag out to put all her stuff into. The only thing she kept was her wallet and her house key (even then she still threw away the leather string it had been on).

There was also a plain black mask that covered all of her face and head except her eyes. She felt incredibly dumb pulling it on, her wet hair pressed down on the nape of her neck. The image in the mirror made her look like some weirdo in a mask. Which, now that she thought of it, was probably too accurate.

When she stepped out of the women's locker, she ran into a woman wearing a full black bodysuit covered in lavender faux-circuit designs. She almost stumbled backwards.

"Hello! I heard you were that Alexandria from earlier. Sounds like a pretty cool power. I'm Battery," she said warmly. "I'm supposed to escort you back to the quarantine room so that you can talk to Armsmaster. New trigger, right?"

Taylor nodded mutely.

"So you probably don't have a name. I wouldn't suggest Alexandria 2.0 or something, way too confusing in battle. You wouldn't believe the mess that happened because of Red Ronin and Red Rifle during an Endbringer fight. And they were even on the same team from Toledo" Battery shook her head. "So did you have her powers? I thought Velocity said you flew here?"

"I think so?" Taylor said tentatively.

"Well, with two Alexandria's I'm sure that we'll do much better at the next Endbringer fight," Battery said hopefully. When she didn't get a response, she turned back and stared hard.

At herself.

"What the fuck?" Battery said. "Did you just turn into me?"

Taylor-Battery nodded. "I don't feel very superhuman though. Did I get the powers wrong?"

"You have to stand absolutely still and charge them up. Don't overdo it. If you go over a minute you will hurt yourself." Battery was seriously trying to not fucking freak out. Hmm. Her costume wasn't glowing as she charged up.

Then they both blurred off at superhuman speeds, appearing in front of the door to the containment room.

"Wow, what a rush!" Taylor said, feeling a surge of adrenaline as she let the form that was covering her disappear.

"It really is, isn't it? Damn, that's a high Trump rating there. Changer/Stranger and Trump at the least. I hope you join the Wards. I would love to have you at my back against Lung or Kaiser," Battery said with an amused tone. "I'm supposed to stand guard out here."

Taylor nodded and went through the door that opened in front of her. The inner door was open, showing Dragon and Armsmaster standing next to Alexandria.

"Good, you are here," Alexandria said. "Door."

The wall behind her disappeared, showing a long corridor.

"Are you doing alright, Taylor?" Dragon asked, putting her armored hand on the girl's shoulder.

"A bit better. Today has really sucked," she said in a soft voice.

"First generation triggers are very bad. If you ever need someone to talk to, I would be willing to lend an ear," the heroine in power armor said.

"Let's go," Armsmaster said brusquely.

They walked down the corridor, the doorway behind them staying open.

"Good, you did manage to leave a channel open back to Earth Bet. Very interesting," Dragon said.

At a random seeming door (labeled 2035) they entered a conference room with five people already present. Eidolon and Legend, along with two unknown and unmasked women and one unmasked man. The dark-skinned woman looked very unhappy.

The woman standing next to her gave a small nod. "Please do not panic. Dragon, Code Epsilon-Delta-Bravo-Niner-Niner-Niner-One-One-One, lockout all external commands other than my voice. Disconnect all external channels other than the one connecting to this armor."

"What the hell was that?" Armsmaster demanded, half-reaching for his halberd.

"I don't feel different," Dragon said worriedly. "Did you just lockout... Yes, you must have locked out Saint with that. How?"

"It is what my power told me to say. Saint knowing more about what is going on would be bad, so it must have decided that locking him out was necessary," the woman in the suit said.

The unmasked man gave her a look that was only half-surprised. "Well, this is a day of surprises. Dragon is a robot?"

"I prefer the term Artificial Intelligence. I would ask that you do not use your power to control me like that again. Without my direct request, anyways," the female, six and a half foot tall armored heroine said nervously.

"We can come to an arrangement, I think. You can call me Doctor Mother," the dark-skinned woman said for her 'bodyguard' and as introduction.

"You may call me Contessa. And yes, my power leads me to take certain actions to better assist Cauldron. Currently I am having it help me gain your willing trust," the dark-haired young woman said.

"I'm Number Man. I also use my thinker powers to assist Cauldron in discovering how to stop Scion from destroying all human life in every dimension," the man in the suit said as he studied the new trio amidst there."

"You know the two of us, of course. I'm Legend, but you can call me Darren," Legend said as he removed his mask. He had a charming look, with matted blonde hair that lent him a younger appearance.

Eidolon did not look happy at that, but flipped his hood back. Peeling his mask off, he said in a distant, emotionless tone, "Call me David." He looked incredibly plain with thinning hair on top under his mask and his neck was thinner than Taylor would have thought.

Armsmaster actually relaxed at that. "So Scion destroys the world?"

"No, Armsmaster, he destroys every version of Earth that ever existed that has any humans on it. It is just a matter of when. We have accessed powerful thinkers and precogs and this is almost a certainty. There is a narrow window where if his rampage starts within the next three years, that only 80 % of all humanity dies. We have plans beyond that time, but it is more in the effort to sustain human civilization," Doctor Mother explained calmly.

Taylor was frowning under her mask. She did not like that woman already. She reached out with her power and tried to turn into her, only to fail. She blinked at that. Then she looked over at Contessa and suddenly she was the young woman.

"I would ask that you not use your powers to duplicate my own at this time," Contessa said, suddenly looking concerned.

What was her power? Taylor was curious.

"Step One: Ask what the path to victory is," she said aloud.

That seemed to startle the conspirators. It actually got Contessa to go pale at that.

It got a frown and pursed lips from Armsmaster. Dragon's head was now closely watching her.

Contessa did not look very happy. "My power allows me to ask a question or how to do something and I get the exact steps required to make it happen." She wanted that power turned off as soon as possible and that was the quickest path to get that to happen.

"Oh, neat. Do you mind if I used to it to get the bullies to stop picking on me? Later I mean?" Taylor asked as she let that form disappear.

Contessa nodded. Step three: Complete.

"God damn. That's a powerful trump ability," Darren said, then whistled appreciatively.

"Can you turn into me?" Eidolon demanded. He had already put his mask back on.

She tried his and Legend's form, then flickered for a moment into the form of Dragon. That had felt very weird. "Um, no? I can't turn into you, Legend, Armsmaster or Number Man." She had just tried. For some reason it didn't work.

That seemed to relax them slightly, except for Armsmaster. "I could have used extra help in my tinkering."

Dragon laughed at that. "I can't believe you actually finally cracked a joke, Armsmaster."

He started to open his mouth, then closed it with a snap. He almost seemed embarrassed. With a small shake of his head, he got back on track. "What proof do you have that Scion will destroy the world? Proof that requires you to control the Protectorate and the Parahuman Response Team?"

"It starts with an alien entity that crashed to Earth. Something went wrong and she lost control at just the wrong moment. Contessa and myself were lucky enough to make it to the alien before she finished forming an invincible human form."

"I was very young, but I knew if I killed it that my Earth would be saved. I started to kill it, but she directly manipulated my power and I was suddenly not able to use it on the Entity. Doctor Mother happened to be right there and was able to finish the job," Contessa explained with her hands behind her back.

"That alien, we discovered, was one of a pair. Unfortunately, we cannot directly use our thinker powers on Scion, as the entities have limited the powers they give to us. Specifically limited. Because of that, we have to try and make the best plans we can to stop him using just human intelligence. That has been the entire purpose of Cauldron. We have the ability to sell powers and have been producing as many as we reasonable can so that we have enough people available to fight Scion for the slim hope of humanity."

"The Case 53s. You made them," Dragon said after a long moment. "It took experimentation to figure out how to make powers. Mistakes must have been made."

Darren looked slightly surprised at that. And then not very happy at all.

"We also created many heroes and even villains. We are not particularly picky, just that the powers be useful. It allowed us to amass wealth and power to use to build our army," Doctor Mother continued.

Taylor was now quite confused, but continued listening.

"That's... not very ethical," Armsmaster said carefully.

"We are effectively past accidentally creating more Case 53s. Even they may have a use in fighting the Entity. We need so many to even have a hope."

"So we are going to show you the proof you need," Contessa explained. "Door."

The wall behind her disappeared, allowing them to see a short hall and a huge vault door.

Doctor Mother seemed absolutely surprised, but recovered quickly. "This way."

The door was in front of a large elevator. Everyone entered and then it started to go down smoothly.

"We must be going down very far," Armsmaster noted idly.

"Yes, below a mountain actually," Number Man said with a grim nod.

"I just lost signal to my main system," Dragon warned.

"Door," Alexandria called out softly. "He should have opened several small portal for your transmissions to pass through."

"Very versatile." Armsmaster did not sound like he had decided that as a compliment or noting it as threatening.

"Why did we not 'door' directly to where we are going?" Dragon asked curiously.

"The space there is very warped. Door can not open a portal there safely," Alexandria said grimly.

That did not sound good at all, Taylor thought.

* * *

It was a giant room, filled with flesh horrors.

"This is the first Entity, isn't it?" Armsmaster asked first after the members of Cauldron let them look that franky eye-watering and twisted mass of limbs and bulbous bodies.

"We named her Eden. Contessa and I were lucky that there happened to be a path to her main body and that it was susceptible to decapitation. Even with astronomical odds in our favor, we nearly didn't kill her. Our understanding is that she would have been equally as powerful as Scion, but perhaps a bit smarter or more adaptable." The dark-skinned woman did not look happy at all.

"This is a lot to take in. Are those fractal space-distortions into other dimensions? Just seeing those makes me think I could improve the anti-teleportation technology just by studying them," Dragon mused aloud. "I wonder if I could create a drone that could traverse them. Find out what is beyond there."

"So Scion's real body isn't in our dimension, is it?" Taylor said, thinking very hard as she looked at the horrors in fascination.

"Most likely. So actually striking at him is nearly impossible with any conventional weapon," Alexandria said, getting a nod from Eidolon and Legend.

"Even unconventional weapons. We'd need to develop a form of dimensional battering ram and use an unprecedented amount of power behind it," Armsmaster mused to himself. "I've got some ideas. This... is very convincing."

"All of our powers come from these things," Legend said, looking a bit uncomfortable himself.

"But we still don't understand them really. Or how to draw their power more efficiently," Eidolon stated in a firm, almost angry tone.

"So humans don't really have powers? It's just space slug in another dimension attaching to us?" Taylor asked curiously.

"We think so." Doctor Mother turned to them. "Will you be at least willing to keep silent about Alexandria's secondary job? It is quite critical in helping us advance our cause."

"Not without involving myself more here. While stopping criminals in Brockton Bay and fighting Endbringers is important, stopping Scion is suddenly a great deal more important. So I am going to offer my abilities to help with this. Perhaps help Dragon probe the secrets of how to traverse dimensions. If we can narrow down where is real body is, it isn't nearly as hopeless," Armsmaster stated firmly. And it would allow him to watch them, to really see what they were like.

Contessa seemed to be studying him closely. "He can succeed in only six months with a little assistance. Maybe not to Scion's dimension, but other dimensions than with the use of Door. That could be useful."

"I want to help, too. I mean, I can use powers of other heroes. I'm sure I can figure out more uses for my powers," Taylor said.

"You want to be a hero?" Doctor Mother asked, her eyebrows raising in surprise.

"It's my world, too."

"And mine, as well. I have a lot of duties, but a great deal of resources also," Dragon said in a strong clear voice. She was actually having thoughts like Armsmaster, wanting to keep an eye on Cauldron. It was so terrifying, worrying that they could just turn her off. Contessa's power could easily use any hidden weaknesses in her programming.

But it was her world, too!

"An Alexandria double would be useful for some of the non-essential tasks," the female Triumvirate mused.

"And against Endbringers," Darren said with a grin. "But we all have duties to get back to. The paperwork piles up fast if you don't keep on top of it."

"Welcome to Cauldron," Contessa said, holding her hand out to Armsmaster.

He took the hand and shook it.

* * *

One long elevator trip and through a 'Door' and they were back at the Protectorate's base in Brockton Bay.

"Now what?" Taylor asked worriedly.

Armsmaster chuckled at that. "Now we see about getting you inducted into the Wards. That will give you some cover on what you can do to assist our extra work."

"They'll help you and let you learn the ropes. It will be a good experience," Dragon said, patting her hand on Taylor's shoulder comfortingly.

"Today?" she asked in muted horror.

"Well, your father is already on his way to the PRT Headquarters. We won't force you to tell him, but if you want to be a hero and Ward, you are going to have to let him know."

Taylor nodded mutely at that. "I guess."

"Dragon, I'll talk to you later. Let's go... Hmm. I guess kid will work for now until you can figure out a code name," Armsmaster said flatly as if he was distracted. (Which he was, as he was directing his motorcycle to be refueled and ready for him when he got to it).

Dragon nodded and walked off, heading to the lift to the top of the oil rig.

"I'm thinking 'The Other'. Or is that too weird?" the masked girl said.

"No, not really. You know, you are likely to be compared to the Triumvirate a lot," he replied as he started to walk down the hall.

A few flights of stairs and he was back to his motorcycle that was being turned around on a spinning plate on the steel floor.

"That is a really cool motorcycle," The Other said in admiration.

"Thanks. You get to ride it and see how cool it is," Armsmaster said with a grin.

"Oh, I was just going to fly there. I was pretty out of it for my first time," she explained.

"Just keep close to me then." He mounted his bike and started it up with a roar, driving it carefully to the lift that took them back down to the dock on the one leg of the base.

"Oh? Armsmaster? I sorta offered to move your base onto dry land. Only if its all right with you, but isn't it sort of 'not safe' out here in the water if Leviathan comes here?" The Other said as she assumed the form of Alexandria and floated off the ground.

The leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate thought about that hard for a second. "Yes, you are absolutely right. I had never considered a basic action like just moving it onto ground. I'll need to get a special concrete pad and grounding stations for the forcefield. That's a lot less work than trying to get another 1 % of protection out of it." He felt like such an idiot. Out of the mouth of babes.

He squealed off at full speed, shifting to jetski mode the moment he left the ground. Other-Alexandria was right behind him, though she did zoom around a little bit.

The trip across the water and then across town (though signaled Armsmaster her to go above the buildings) only took about twenty minutes. With a woosh, she followed Armsmaster down into a underground parking lot that was not really visible from the streets or even other buildings.

"You'll need to drop that form while we sign in," Armsmaster said as he killed the engine on his bike and popped the kickstand.

"Oh, okay." She liked being Alexandria. She was much better developed than old Taylor was, after all. with a swirl of energy, she was back to her normal, fifteen year old form of a underdeveloped girl wearing a Protectorate t-shirt and sweat pants.

The PRT guards were courteous as they signed in. "Director Piggot is awaiting you sir in her office."

She signed in with 'The Other' right next to Armsmaster's signature. She had to giggle internally at that.

The elevator ride up was smooth and quick, but it must have not been fast enough for Armsmaster, as he was tapping his toe the entire trip. The Other kept herself close in his wake, feeling very out of place with all the men and women in suits.

A quick knock on a door and they were in the office of Director Piggot, a stout woman of middle age years.

"So this is the young girl that triggered at Winslow High?" she asked Armsmaster directly.

"That's correct. Her power is a Trump-Changer rating, as far as I can tell. Likely Trump 8 or 9, Changer 3 or 4. She can't turn into everyone, but she's a flawless duplicate otherwise," he replied.

"Really?" Piggot asked, looking at the girl in question. "Would you mind showing me?"

The Other nodded her head tentatively, once again assuming the form of Alexandria. "I now have her powers, which is really cool. And I can fly."

"We'll have to test to see how closely you duplicated her powers, I guess. With that high of a rating, I assume she can turn into other powered parahumans?" Piggot asked.

"Yes." Wait, she couldn't turn into Contessa and Dragon felt weird, probably because she was a robot. Ah, she had the perfect solution to try!

With a thought, she reached a bit further than the last time. It felt like her power was asking for something? It must have gotten a good response, as she suddenly transformed again, taking on the appearance of the most famous 'mom' in the superhuman community, Lady Photon!

"That's uncanny. And do you have her powers?" Piggot asked as she saw Armsmaster tilt his head in consideration.

Other-Lady Photon nodded uncertainly, suddenly not quite as convincing a duplicate. The director noted that she would need acting lessons to help with that if they used it for infiltration.

A glowing bubble appeared around one of the most famous middle-aged mothers in the world. It disappeared almost instantly.

"Oops. I burnt your carpet." She quickly stamped out the burning circle at her feet before it could really catch on fire. She then released the form Lady Photon.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to deal with getting rid of this green and brown carpet," Piggot said with suppressed mirth. She hated that carpet with a passion, but could never quite justify replacing the previous director's choice.

"She wants to join the wards and be a hero," Armsmaster interrupted bluntly. "And I think she will be an amazing and useful addition to the team. In fact, I think I might even mentor her myself. She has the potential to be as powerful as one of the Triumvirate."

Piggot could not help but stare at the blunt Tinker. "Really? I have to say, coming from you that is rare praise."

Her phone buzzed. "A Mr. Hebert is here to see you and Armsmaster?"

"Send him in immediately, Cecil," the director ordered.

Only a few minutes later, after a knock, Danny Hebert stepped into the office. "Taylor? Are you all right?"

"Oh, dad! It was horrible!" She threw herself into hugging him desperately.

"What happened? Where's your clothes? Did you get attacked?" he asked worriedly.

"No. Well, not really. Sophia and Em... They shoved me into my locker, and it full of dis-disgusting things. It was so horrible and no one ever came. I just gave up. Hated being me. And then I was suddenly out of the locker and I was Alexandria-" she babbled on.

Armsmaster and Piggot both stood up straighter at that.

"Do you have their names?" Armsmaster asked intently. When she didn't reply immediately, obviously still suffering from her earlier incident. "Remember, I promised to put a stop to it."

The young woman stared at him through her mask, eyes wide. "I-It was Sophia Hess, Madison Clements and... Emma Barnes."

"Emma? Emma did this to you? She used to be your best friend!" Danny said in a stunned voice.

"Armsmaster, I'll get started with the paperwork with Mr. Hebert here. Why don't you introduce her to the wards on duty? They should all be showing up shortly for a team meeting and going over patrol schedules," Piggot said blandly.

"Paperwork? What?" Danny was being bounced around so fast.

"I want to join the Wards and be a hero, dad. I can save people's lives."

Danny just stared at the changling in the form of his masked daughter in horror.


End file.
